"Agency" means the Iowa department of human
services.
"Agency child welfare service case" means at
least one child in a household is involved in agency services with an
agency-assigned social work case manager.
"Agency worker" means the agency child
welfare worker who has been assigned responsibility for a child and family's
case, either to perform a child abuse assessment, family assessment, or child
in need of assistance (CINA) assessment or assume case management
responsibility for ongoing agency child welfare service cases.
"Candidate for foster care" means a child
who is identified in a prevention plan as being at imminent risk of entering
foster care but who can remain safely in the child's home or in a kinship
placement as long as services or programs that are necessary to prevent the
entry of the child into foster care are provided. "Candidate for foster care"
includes a child whose adoption or guardianship arrangement is at risk of a
disruption or dissolution that would result in a foster care placement.
"Child," "children," or
"youth" means a person or persons who meet the definition of a
child in Iowa Code section
234.1(2).
"Child abuse" means one or more of the
categories of child abuse defined in Iowa Code section
232.68.
"Child abuse assessment" means an assessment
process by which the agency responds to all accepted reports of child abuse
that allege child abuse as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(1) through (3) and (5) through (11); or that allege child
abuse as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(4) that also allege imminent danger, death, or injury to a
child. A child abuse assessment results in a disposition and a determination of
whether a case meets the definition of child abuse and a determination of
whether criteria for placement on the registry are met.
"Child in need of assistance" or
"CINA" means a child adjudicated by juvenile court to be a
child in need of assistance pursuant to Iowa Code section
232.2.
"Child vulnerability" means the degree that
a child cannot on the child's own avoid, negate, or minimize the impact of
present or impending danger.
"Contractor" means a private organization
authorized to do business in Iowa that has entered into a contract with the
agency to provide one or more of the services defined in this chapter.
"Contractor" refers to the organization that is named as the responsible party
in the contract and whose authorized representative has signed the
contract.
"Family assessment" means an assessment
process by which the agency responds to all accepted reports of child abuse
that allege child abuse as defined in Iowa Code section
232.68(2)
"a"(4), but do not allege imminent danger, death, or injury to
a child. A family assessment does not include a determination of whether a case
meets the definition of child abuse and does not include a determination of
whether criteria for placement on the registry are met.
"Family-centered services" means the
services provided by contract pursuant to this chapter.
"Family preservation services" or
"FPS" means short-term, intensive, home-based crisis
interventions targeted to families that have children at imminent risk of
removal and placement in foster care. Family preservation services combine
skill-based interventions and flexibility so that services are available to
families according to their individual needs.
"Fictive kin" means a person who is
unrelated to a child by blood, adoption, or marriage, but who has an
emotionally significant relationship with the child or the child's
family.
"Household" means the place where a child
resides.
"Kinship caregiver" means a relative or
fictive kin providing care for a child.
"Kinship navigator services" means the
services and supports providing information, referral, and follow-up to kinship
caregivers who are caring for and raising children to link kinship caregivers
to benefits and other resources they need.
"Non-agency-involved case" means a case in
which no one in the household is involved with an agency-assigned social work
case manager.
"Permanency" means a child has a safe,
stable, custodial environment in which to grow up and a lifelong relationship
with a nurturing caregiver.
"Protective capacities" means the family
strengths or resources that reduce, control, or prevent risks from arising or
from having an unsafe impact on a child.
"Risk" means the probability or likelihood
that a child will experience maltreatment.
"Safe" means that no signs of present or
impending danger to a child are identified or that one or more signs of present
or impending danger are identified but the child's degree of vulnerability or
the caregiver's protective capacities offset the current threat. The child is
not likely to be in imminent danger of maltreatment.
"SafeCare®" means an evidence-based
training curriculum for parents who are at risk or have been reported for child
abuse. Through SafeCare®, parents receive weekly home visits to improve
skills in several areas, including home safety, health care, and parent-child
interaction.
"Solution Based Casework®" or
"SBC" means an evidence-based, family-centered model of child
welfare assessment, case planning, and ongoing casework. The goal of SBC is to
work in partnership with the family to help identify the family's strengths, to
focus on everyday life events, and to help the family build the skills
necessary to manage difficult situations.
"Solution focused meeting" means a gathering
of family members, friends, and formal and informal supports, with the
assistance of a trained facilitator, to draw on past successes of the family in
problem solving and work in partnership with the family to enhance safety of
the children.
